Archivos mensuales: Agosto 2014

You might be vaguely familiar with macros if you’ve ever used a computer. Basically, whenever you perform a complicated task with a simple gesture, or reuse complex code with a simple input mechanism, you’re using macros. Think keyboard shortcuts.

In Google Tag Manager, this is the essence of macros. You can do away with a lot of complexity by resorting to macros, especially if you ever find that you need the same piece of code or the same operation over and over again.

This guide will first take a cursory look at what macros really are, before going through the (current) list of available macros. I’ll add short examples and use cases for each, but there’s a whole lot more to be found online.

Click the banner below to view or download this Macro Guide. Written by Simo Ahava, our Production Director in NetBooster Finland.

*Google Tag Manager and other related services are provided by NetBooster DnA. Read more about our new international service here. Contact our DnA team with any questions.

Record!!! On Tuesday afternoon (20.08.2014), we assigned the last places of our Performance Night event on 9th September 2014 in Wolkenburg, Cologne. After the successes last year we were extremely pleased to run our networking event again, and this year we have outdone the results. Three weeks prior to the occasion our networking event is fully booked. Any further registrations will be placed on a waiting list.

Companies wishing to be present during the “Performance Night” and thus also want to secure free tickets can take advantage of the attractive sponsoring offers and support the popular event.All sponsorship opportunities and further information regarding the “Performance Night” can be found at www.performance-night.com

You may already feel behind in the digital race, and if you’re still not planning ahead for the next three years, you should get started, as the pace of disruption in Digital Marketing speeds up and demands reflect an enlightened and empowered consumer that expects to be listened to, understood and met with relevance and competence.

If you’re only just starting to take a customer centric view on branding, you should be concerned. Your challenge is that consumers have never before had so much power of knowledge directly in their hands – the transactional barriers of gaining information are gone, and our new currency is social capital that we can use to trade with brands in exchange for the meaningful experiences we hunger for in our busy lives.

Your transactions with customers shouldn’t be limited to the moment they make a purchase. Your challenge is that the consumer is used to paying for services by clicking on ads and by sharing content that endorses brands. The consumer is increasinglyaware that they’re spending their credibility among their peers when they do it, but they accept this as it’s a reflection that also gives them credit. But only if your brand fits their personal storytelling.

If you’re only now realizing that marketing and business have fundamentally been disrupted – you could be in trouble because “The future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed”, as William Gibson famously said. The gap between services experienced, and expectations have grown tremendously and new winners that get it are already giant successes.

Tech, Data and Specialists have already joined forces some years ago to make it happen– your challenge today is to bridge the gaps in your strategy so that the enlightened consumer can close the gaps – as consumers we’re always linked to tech and are experts in powering our decisions by data, and we have hundreds of 1st degree peers and billions of influencers in a few jumps – if you want to be relevant you have to start paying attention.

What’s all this about? – The future of successful brands belongs to those that get it right… In this note I’ve summarised the challenges you’re facing managing a brand in 3 summarized thoughts and 3 suggested action areas which are:

In the next section I’ll expand on these thoughts and suggested actions.

Deal with it, or it deals with you

So I highlighted three thoughts that you should reflect on in your context.

Most of what brands do is below par – In reality I know very few brands that I consider smart and intelligent enough to be something I want to be associated with or would consider endorsing. As I realize that liking a brand now constitutes sharing an endorsement, I’ve learned to be much more careful and selective. If you want to be my friend you’ll have to learn to be relevant, present and situated when I need you. If you do it well, I’d love to share my love for you with the world.

Silos will kill you – There’s no way I won’t notice that you’re not keeping your promises if you’re not consistent when I meet you in another context. Not only is it embarrassing for you that you’ve got amnesia, but it also makes it really hard to trust you. Join it all up so you can earn my attention and then we can begin to build some trust. If you make mistakes, don’t pretend I’m the stupid one, take responsibility, and I may like you even more.

It has to be a dialogue – The benefit of having friends is that I don’t have to explain very much. You should do the same; solely remembering my last expression of a thought or need is not good enough – remember that vacation I booked three years ago where you helped me? I remember it clearly, but chances are that you don’t, and that’s a shame.

The good news (for you) is that it’s never been easier to fix these challenges. That is if you want to? The trouble is that you may not get it in the first place, and that’s a much bigger challenge. But here, I’ll share with you, what you could do if you’re ready to take a few steps to get to know me better. And please, don’t tell me you’ll get there in a few years when your big platform change is finally, (perhaps) in place – it’s very likely I won’t wait for you.

And here are the top three actions I would recommend you consider:

Build a consistent omni-present ability to know what your brand is communicating. You can do this in at least two ways – find a big shiny platform that claims to be able to help you, and be really really patient, as you might be lucky in 2 or 3 years (I’ve probably moved on in the meantime, sorry.) Or build an agile approach of the best elements by stitching them together and rapidly improving as you and I start getting to know each other better. This means not only your marketing and advertising, but also the transactional and social capital.

Learn to maintain a dialogue, after all markets are dialogues. Perhaps you already started by sending me some simple postcards with things you generallythink might be relevant for someone likeme, but if you really want to play, you’ll learn to send me exactlywhat I want before I’ve realized it. The best way to give yourself that advantage is if you can have a conversation with me, because I’m actually happy to share my thoughts with you, if you’ve managed to get my attention.

Understand that business is not limited to money transactions – don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’re only here to make me pull out my purse and pay with my hard earned money. My social capital is even harder to earn, but I will barter with you, if you get good at understanding my needs and the story I’m building my life around. Let me help you, but you need tomake sure I get something relevantin return.

Act – The time is always now

I’m sure you’re thinking, that’s not for me. Or perhaps you think it’s too advanced and complex for you, or your excuse is that you have this platform project already which will complete in a few years if you’re lucky. But then you’re not doing what you should. If you want to be tomorrow’s hero you’ll start doing these recommended actions today.

Just remember that while you’re thinking about it, I’m already checking on my smartphone if your competitor can beat your prices down the street…

My best advice – don’t buy big shiny systems to solve your needs, and don’t forget that you’re a consumer yourself, I’m sure you actually know yourself what I’m talking about here. Don’t forget that after price, comes experience, and trust as the two most important factors in the decision making process (combined, they are more important than price).

Don’t forget that it’s really ok to be smart with data I’ve shared with you – it could be that if I just booked a seat on your flight, I may also need that rental car and hotel room, just like three years ago, remember?

Your biggest challenge is probably not technological any more, it’s the silos in your organisation and the lack of understanding among internal peers. Start with that, and gather some intelligence from real life – then take it from there.

Yesterday Google announced that at the end of September 2014, the close variant keyword matching will be automatically enabled for every campaign and advertisers will no longer be able to opt out.

What are ‘Close Variants’?

In 2012, to broaden coverage of keywords in exact and phrase match, Google launched the ‘close variants’, meaning that keywords in exact match type, which previously covered only searches for those exact terms, started also covering searches for close variations e.g. misspellings, plurals etc.

For example, if someone was searching for ‘trainer deals’ on Google and the advertiser was targeting the keyword [trainer deal] (without the plural) and opted in ‘close variants’, the ad would be triggered and visible to the user regardless.

What does this mean for advertisers?

According to Google, at least 7% of search queries contain misspellings, which mean this change will in some shape or form have an impact on advertiser’s accounts.

For those advertisers that have already adopted close variants (which is the default option), nothing will change in terms of reach and click volumes. For those that relied on the BMM or Broad Match to capture those additional variations and opted out of the close variant option in the campaigns targeting keywords in exact match type, they will see an increase in volume coming from campaigns with keywords in exact match type. This should not be significant, but still an increase can be expected (especially for those advertisers relying on Broad Match Modifier to target variations and misspellings with the aim not to compromise on relevancy).

What should advertisers do?

We believe there is not going to be an impact on quality score and if the misspells/variations of the keywords are added to the campaigns through regular SQRs, they will not be picked up by a keyword in BMM in a different campaign/ad group for example, which also covers misspells and other variations. This means that there is not going to be an overlap between the BMM and the Near Exact/Phrase keywords and therefore issues with entering the same auction with more than one keyword (causing CPCs to rise).

Our approach here at NetBooster is to include as many relevant and sensible keywords as possible to the account to ensure that there is full control on bid management (based on performance) and reporting (to identify further opportunities). The change will allow us to focus on adding negative keywords to better shape traffic , reduce cost and potentially deliver a better ad experience to online users and healthier ROI for our clients.

London, 07.08.2014 – metapeople and NetBooster are hosting the networking event ‘Performance Night’, which will open its doors again for the 10th time on September 9th, 2014 to all online marketing enthusiasts at the Wolkenburg venue in Cologne.

The ‘Performance Night’ has become one of the most popular events held before the ‘dmexco’ in Cologne and is the ideal ‘exhibition warm-up’ for the international online marketing industry.